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ANCHORAGE - The 800-mile trans-Alaska oil pipeline is being shut down this weekend for maintenance.

Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., the oil company consortium that runs the pipeline, said the shutdown will last up to 36 hours.

Among the work being done, crews will remove a section of pipe and disconnect the 48-inch pipeline from old equipment at a pump station 104 miles south of the Prudhoe Bay oil field.

Alyeska said Pump Station 3 is the second to be switched to new equipment and control systems.

Crews also will work on improving leak protection on mainline valves at the pump station on Prudhoe.

The pipeline carries oil from Alaska's North Slope oil fields.